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How To Fix Folding Mirrors On R33

Radion

By Radion,
in Tutorials / DIY / FAQ

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Radion Community Regular

Radion

Posted
Posted

Hey Guru's,

I have found this very good tutorial on GTR UK forum from a user named GTS_BILL. It shows how to repair the mirrors when they stop folding on a Skyline r33.

I found it very useful so I thought I would share it here in the hope that someone else also finds it useful.

I did not make this tutorial and all the credit goes to: GTS_BILL fromhttp://www.gtr.co.uk

Here it goes:

The folding mechanism within the mirror is powered and controlled using only two wires within the mirror wiring. These two wires provide continuous 12V and 0V connections to the mirror. The connections are one way round when the mirror switch is set to the fold out position; they are then reversed when it is set to the fold in position.

The clever bit that switches off the power to the motor when it reaches the fully open or fully closed position is contained within the mirror. It consists of a small PCB, some small springy brass contacts that brush along tracks on the PCB and a pair of diodes. The PCB moves with the mirror and rotates around a spindle fixed to the mirror bracket. The brass contacts are fixed relative to the spindle and are contained within a round plastic housing that is fixed to the spindle. The contacts provide connections between various tracks on the PCB according to the position of the mirror and perform the function of two parallel switches; one to break the connection to the motor when it reaches the fully open position and the other to break the connection when it reaches the fully closed position. Each 'switch' has a diode in series with it, but the two diodes are different ways round ensuring that the connection to the motor is only broken in one 'direction' at a time. Ie although it won't open any further it will still close when the power is reversed.

It was the brass contacts that form the switches that had come loose in my mirrors. The tricky part of the repair was getting the mirror apart but having done it twice I'm in a position to explain how to do it.

First of all, though, it's necessary to prove that the fault is with the mirror and not with the switch on the dash or with the wiring to the mirror.

Remove the door card and unplug the mirror's 5 pin connector from the wiring loom (it's close to the mirror towards the top of the door panel).

Use a voltmeter to check that the 12V and 0V signals are present at the mirror connector on the wiring loom with the switch in both the 'fold in' and the 'fold out' positions.

They will be one way round the switch set to 'fold in' and the other way round with it set to 'fold out'. You'll have to be careful not to short anything at this point so it doesn't blow the 10A fuse in the fuse box.

When looking into the connector on the wiring loom, with the pins facing you and with the connector's catch on the left; the two pins you need to check are the bottom two. In my car; the bottom wire is light green with a black stripe and the one above it is dark green. Passenger and drivers side are both the same. You'll have to turn the key to accessories to perform this check.

With the mirror switch set to 'fold out', the bottom pin (light green/black wire) should be connected to 0V and the one above (dark green wire) should be 12V. The simpest way to check this is just to put the voltmeter across the two pins.

Now set the mirror switch to 'fold in'; the bottom pin (light green/black wire) should be 12V and the one above (dark green wire) should be connected to 0V. If these two readings are ok it's safe to assume that the switch and the wiring to the mirror connector are ok and that the fault is with the mirror itself.

Remove the mirror from the door by prising off the triangular plastic cover with your fingers and loosening the three 10mm bolts holding it to the door. Make sure you've freed the mirror's cable from the door then support the mirror as you take the bolts out.

With the mirror separated from the car you can set about dismantling it. It's not difficult; it just requires a bit of time and patience to ensure that nothing gets broken along the way. It's a good idea to do this part of the job indoors where there's no risk of loosing anything. (Also to keep the mirror on a soft surface so it doesn't get scratched). It took me 2 hours to do the second mirror.

1) Remove the 3 bolts that attach the mirror to it's bracket; they are underneath the bracket. These bolts have thread locking compound on them and are very tight. It's important to find the correct screwdriver or ratchet bit for this job so you don't damage the heads of the bolts. I ended up drilling out one of mine after damaging the head. The same bolt gave me problems on each mirror. It was the one nearest the hinge.

2) After removing the mirror bracket, Loosen the wire so it can be pulled through the bracket a bit by undoing the cable clamp that’s hidden under the foam on the bracket. There are also another two screws under the foam that might need removing as well. Also, remove the smaller screw that is visible by the hinge on the mirror itself.

3) Remove the glass from the mirror. If you angle the glass so that it’s pointing upwards as far as possible then pull on the bottom edge of the glass it will pop off. It is just clipped into a plastic plate that moves to provide the adjustment for the angle of the glass. It hooks into the plate on the top edge and clips along the bottom edge and along the sides.

4) With the glass out, you'll see 3 medium sized screws holding in the white plastic motor module that provides the glass movement. Two of the screws are visible through holes in the moving plate. Remove these screws and move the module aside

5) Now remove the 3 larger screws that hold the main mechanism into the mirror housing. Remove these and manoeuvre the whole mechanism free from the housing. You won't be able to separate it from the housing completely because the cable plug is too large to get through the hole in the housing.

6) At the hinge end of the large mechanism is a plastic cover that needs prising off from the gearbox and motor that folds the mirror. It just needs prising free from the 3 tiny clips holding it on.

7) With the cover off you'll see the tiny motor for the folding mechanism and also the pcb that controls the switching of the motor. In order to free the PCB I think it is necessary to remove the 3 small screws that hold the cover on the gearbox. With the screws out, you can carefully lever the top off the gearbox by twisting a flat blade screwdriver in the gap between the gearbox and it's cover. Try not to upset anything inside the gearbox; nothing moved out of place when I took the cover off mine; it's easy enough to put the cover back on later. The gearbox cover just needs lifting off sufficiently (about 1cm) to allow the PCB and the round plastic housing underneath it to come off the spindle. (They will probably 'pop' off). This is the housing that contains the switching contacts. With the contacts housing free from the spindle the PCB can be removed as the clips holding it in place are now free to move inwards.

9) With the PCB removed you'll see two small brass contacts inside the plastic housing. With a bit of luck, you'll find that one or both of them will have come loose from the housing where they are supposed to be fixed in place, meaning that they no longer make contact with the PCB above and so cannot provide the current path between the PCB tracks which they are supposed to be in contact with. Each brass contact has 3 holes at its base; the centre one has a plastic peg poking up through it to locate it in the housing. The two holes either side seemed to have the tiniest of blobs of melted plastic holding the contact in place. These blobs of plastic just fell off on mine (they are ridiculously weak). One of the contacts in my passenger mirror looked ok but as soon as I touched it it came loose. I just glued the contacts back in to place with some superglue.

10) After gluing the contacts in place, you could spray some contact cleaner on the contacts and on the PCB tracks then fit the PCB back on top of the contact housing. Locate the plastic contact housing correctly over the spindle by lining up the slot with the ridge on the spindle and put the gearbox cover back on to the gearbox. The PCB should now be clipped back into place. Put back the screws that hold the gearbox cover in place. Put back the plastic cover that covers the motor and gearbox.

11) At this point I tried connecting mine in to the wiring loom in the door and testing it. Hold the main part of the mechanism when testing and see that the bracket moves.

12) Re-assemble the mirror by reversing steps 1 to 6 above.

When you clip the glass back in, ensure it is hooked in place properly along the top edge first and then give it a good push in the centre. It needs a firm push to properly click it back in. Don't let it fall out if it's not clipped in properly.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/402894-how-to-fix-folding-mirrors-on-r33/
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